Empty buildings, grey and dark are all around. I walk with a man who has dwarfism and two middle aged men. We all appear confused. The dwarf's cellphone isn't working, and flickers along with the neon street signs. We take refuge in a pharmacy, and are startled by discovering an animal testing lab in the back.

Biological hazard signs label most cages and workspaces. One man knocks over a tray of beakers, and another is scratched by an animal within the cage. The two men become noticeably sick. The dwarf and I leave quickly, and run off into the darkened city streets as one of the infected men begins to attack the other.

At the docks, people waiting to evacuate on military submarines, I'm the last to make it on before the hatch shuts. I don't see the dwarf anywhere.

I'm let off into a dark forest, jets flying overhead. An alien computer complex sits among the trees, an organic hexagon. Surrounding it are glowing singularities of light. I'm driven past them, and gape in horror - as people run past or though these spheres of light, they're pulled up and toward them, like the swirling of water down a drain. As the reach the foci, they burst into pieces, or are completely turned to ash.
These spheres don't move, acting like violent street lights in the wilderness.

I'm told to find an entrance to this complex, to deliver notice to the computer. It demands raw energy from all nuclear plants on Earth. I crawl down a long corridor, and emerge within a large rectangular room. At the far end sits a glowing eye. It communicates without speaking, and takes what energy it wants. A glowing fustian square descends from the ceiling, representing the power it's taken on. It's not enough - and I'm afraid. We haven't met it's demands, and we're unable to.

It shows me that it doesn't matter - it's existed in this world for hundreds of years - it exists outside time. It shows me a scene in Korea -- noblemen are riding a train. Before, they died in a crash. Now, a blond woman -- a circularium agent of the machine -- stands up and makes a small change onboard, altering the future outcome. These men all live, and eventually build reactors where none existed before. It comments that their lives are as controlled as a "Disney pet", serving no other purpose but the machines.

What the machine wanted with the power, I never found out. It releases me, and I exit back into the forest. It's empty, with a heavy blue fog creeping around the trees.